I love stars and the recent meteor showers had me thinking about shooting stars so we made this a few days ago. I like how it turned out and my son loves squishing the center of the star , one suggestion would be to make the star larger, the center bit was tricky to make because it had to be so small. A larger star would fix that. Also don’t skip the sequins if you want to give your little ones an opportunity to work out their fine motor skills and pincer grasp!

Gather your materials. You will need a piece of yellow and a piece of black construction paper. Some contact paper, gold sequins, glitter glue, glue , markers and scissors.

Start by drawing ( or tracing) a star on the yellow paper. Draw some tails too.

Have your child color the star and tails with markers.

Cut a small piece of contact paper, peel the backing off.

Add sequins to the contact paper.

Squeeze some glitter on.

Fold in two and press. Cut to size. I made this large for my son to add the sequins to , but then had to cut it so small to fit inside the star. I’d make a larger star next time.

Cut the star and tails out . Cut the center of the star out, make sure the hole is big enough to show off the glitter but not too big so there are any gaps.

Glue the glitter packet on the paper.

Glue the star over it and the tails on. Let dry.

Books!

“Draw Me A Star” by Eric Carle is often not read in classrooms simply because of a beautiful depiction of a naked man and woman. It’s not what most parents expect to find in an Eric Carle book but it is very fitting in this beautiful and really touching book. The story although very similar to a biblical creation story isn’t necessarily reflective only of a christian view point , rather as I read it is was the author’s own creation. It begins and ends with a star , and hits all the right points in between.

“Star Baby” by Margaret O’Hair is a sweet book about the daily happenings of a little baby , his mama . I like that this book shows off all the things little babies can do. We tend to focus on what babies can’t do and this book flips that around and shows off the perhaps mundane to us but new and wonderful things babies do. The super simple rhyming text is a great length for toddlers and young preschoolers and it’s calm enough to make a great goodnight book.“Our Stars” by Anne Rockwell is another wonderful non fiction book from this author illustrator. The book shares the most basic facts about stars with the reader as well as more complicated facts about constellations, comets and meteors. I love that the facts are shared pretty independently on each page, so if something is above your toddlers head you can simply skip that page, until they are . The illustrations are fun enough to grab attention but detailed enough to help explain the facts being presented.